Lighting up? After tonight, take it outside — way outside

Another night inside the smoke-filled lounge at the Wedgwood Broiler in Northeast Seattle. A scene that, after tonight, will be an anachronism.

Morgan Cooke and Claudia Ellis sat at the bar. He was downing a pint of Miller Genuine Draft and smoking Dave's Lights. ("They're just like Camel Lights.") She was enjoying a vodka martini and Sonoma Menthol Light 100s. ("The cheapest you can buy.")

Both contemplated a fast-approaching future in which they won't be able to unwind over a cigarette in their neighborhood bar.

"Our freedom of choice is being taken away," said Cooke, a 46-year-old house painter. "And to not have choice is to not have liberty."

Cooke's protestations may be spirited. But they also are moot. For smokers, it's about to become a crave new world.

A minute after midnight, the statewide smoking ban that voters approved last month goes into effect, and Wedgwood Broiler's lounge — along with every other bar in Washington — must go smoke-free.

The ban applies to all workplaces and public places, including restaurants, bowling alleys, skating rinks, nontribal casinos, private clubs and reception areas. Even cigar rooms and hookah bars are affected. Smoking within 25 feet of doorways also will be banned.

As the clock ticked earlier this week toward smokers' last call, sarcasm over the new law hung as heavy as the smoke at the Wedgwood Broiler. It was a dramatic and tragic finale for smokers undoubtedly playing out in neighborhoods across the state.

"I realize that smoking is an insidious thing," said Ellis, 60, who has smoked for more than a quarter-century. "But I don't intend to stop smoking because of this law."

Instead, she said, she'll step outside with other smokers. "Our new meet-and-greet place will be the middle of the street."

Scorn also fumed the air.

"Smoking isn't the issue," patron Mia Morris said between drags. "It's about complete and total disregard for the Constitution. That's all I have to say."

Proponents of the ban, however, say there is no constitutional right to smoke, and the government can decide where people can and cannot smoke.

For the Wedgwood Broiler, a neighborhood institution in its fifth decade of business, the transition to smoke-free will be the second in the past seven months. Owner Derek Cockbain declared the Broiler's dining room smoke-free in May, consigning all smokers to the lounge.

"Because we also serve full meals in the bar, we wanted to give our customers a choice between smoking and nonsmoking," Cockbain said.

"I thought business was going to drop down quite a bit, but it stayed normal right through the summer. People who never used to come in, because they didn't want to sit in a dining room that allowed smoking, started coming in. And the diners who smoked simply moved into the bar."

Similarly, Cockbain said, he doesn't expect to lose business because of the new law.

"For our customers who smoke, their choices now are all the same," he said. "What's their alternative?"

One could be staying home.

Louanna and Jay Ackermann of Lake City were celebrating their 24th wedding anniversary in the Broiler lounge Monday night. She ordered the London broil and he splurged on the filet mignon. They both drank White Cadillacs (Cointreau, Galliano, crème de cacao and cream, blended with ice).

And they smoked cigarettes.

"We like to smoke when we go out to drink, and we like to have drinks with dinner," Louanna Ackermann said. "My husband is a musician, so we go out to listen to music a lot. With the smoking ban, we probably won't go out as much."

Less than a mile north of the Broiler, inside the lounge at Wong's Kitchen, customer Mike Howard defiantly said he plans to keep smoking inside bars. He'll risk both the $100 fine for breaking the law and getting tossed by bartenders who have to comply with it.

"Tell Christine Gregoire to come and get me," Howard said. "I'm ready for you, sweetheart!"

Across 35th Avenue Northeast from Wong's Kitchen is the Fiddler's Inn, a pub that has been smoke-free since it opened under new ownership in 1995. But it has allowed smokers to light up outside on a patio, where Jamey Miller, 24, braved the cold to satisfy his nicotine jones.

"I'll definitely smoke less," Miller said. "I won't be chain-smoking in bars anymore, that's for sure. And that's probably a good thing."

Bob Allen of Brier said he frequents the Fiddler's Inn because of the people and the ambience. "And there wouldn't be much ambience for me if it was a smoking bar." Allen said he might be more willing to try other bars now that all of them will be smoke-free.

Allen's friend, Bob Kennedy of Wedgwood, is a nonsmoker, too. But he voted against the ban because he thinks owners should be able to decide whether to allow smoking in their establishments.

"But it will be nice to not have to go home and throw all my clothes in the washer after going out," he said.

Stuart Eskenazi: 206-464-2293 or seskenazi@seattletimes.com